BullionStar Blogs

The not-so-crazy world of negative interest rates

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• JP Koning
• 12 Comments

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Are negative interest rates an artificial phenomenon that central bank technocrats have foisted on the world? Or can interest rates naturally turn negative, of their own accord? Continue Reading

The History of the World is a History of Gold

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• BullionStar
• 6 Comments

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Gold has been inextricably linked to human civilizations since at least 6000 BC. Gold has been used as money in countless civilizations for thousands of years. From the ancient Egyptians to the Roman Empire, from the Republic of Venice to the Spanish Empire, civilizations may rise and fall but the one constant they all had was gold.

A people without the knowledge of their past... Continue Reading

Gold the Ultimate Asset as Fed Joins Race to the Bottom in Global Rates

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• Ronan Manly
• 8 Comments

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The US Federal Reserve has just cut it’s federal funds rate by 0.25%, the first time it has done so in over 10 years.

This change in direction by the central bank of the world’s biggest economy has more to it than the Fed board will say, and the US now rejoins the global central bank game of currency debasement and QE to infinity.

In this environment, gold tends... Continue Reading

By Not Renewing the CBGA, Central Banks in Europe Look Ready to Buy Gold

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• Ronan Manly
• 4 Comments

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After 20 years and three renewals, the signatories to the Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA), a cartel like syndicate of central banks in Europe, have just announced that they will not be renewing the Agreement when it expires this coming September.

While the real purpose of the CBGA was always different to its stated purpose, it appears likely that the Agreement while it ran... Continue Reading

Gold & Silver Price Manipulation – The Greatest Trick ever Pulled

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• Ronan Manly
• 11 Comments

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In addition to commercial bank manipulation of gold and silver futures prices and central bank manipulation of gold by policy, there is arguably another form of manipulation in the precious metals markets which is far more influential in subduing price discovery.

This is the manipulation embedded into the very structure of modern financialized commodities markets, which trade... Continue Reading

Gold Smuggling to India & Japan is a Symptom of Governments’ War against Gold

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• BullionStar
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On a nearly daily basis, the media across Asia covers cases of gold smuggling into countries such as India and Japan. On the surface this smuggling is undertaken to avoid government imposed frictions such as import or consumption taxes, which distort the local gold price.

But at a higher level gold smuggling is a symptom of a problem. And that problem is that these governments... Continue Reading

Poland joins Hungary with Huge Gold Purchase and Repatriation

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• Ronan Manly
• 5 Comments

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In a stunning development which is yet to be fully digested by the gold market, the central bank of Poland announced last Friday that it has purchased 100 tonnes of gold so far this year, boosting its gold reserves to 228.6 tonnes.

While all the Polish gold is still held at the Bank of England in London, this is about to change, and the Poles plan to imminently repatriate... Continue Reading

How Much U.S. Currency is Held Overseas?

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• JP Koning
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While everyone is familiar with the fact that US dollars circulate in many countries around the world, the same is not true of foreign currencies circulating in the US.

The question then is why is there so much international demand for the US dollar, and how much of the total $1.74 trillion paper dollars in circulation globally is in the US and how much is used overseas? Continue Reading

Mahathir’s Gold-backed Currency – Loose Talk or pan-Asian Plan?

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• Ronan Manly
• 4 Comments

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At a recent conference in Tokyo on the Future of Asia, Malaysia’s perennial prime minister Mahathir called for a pan-Asian gold-backed currency that could be used in international trade settlement.

While an interesting proposal, Mahathir’s idea is a repackaged version of his gold dinar scheme which never really got off the ground.

Asia has the ability to shift to... Continue Reading

What is Money? | BullionStar

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• BullionStar
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For something used by nearly everyone on the planet on a daily basis, the subjects of money and currency are surprisingly little understood and shrouded in mystery. But perhaps that’s the way governments and their central banks like it.

From a time in which only gold and silver were considered money, to a contemporary banking system where debt is created out of thin air and... Continue Reading

The Fifth Wave: A new Central Bank Gold Agreement?

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• Ronan Manly
• 6 Comments

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With the fourth Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA) about to expire in September, a relevant question now is will there be a fifth CBGA?

Devised by a cartel of western central banks, the first two CBGAs achieved what they had intended to i.e. provide cover over 1999 - 2008 to close off gold sales and loans that had taken place years before.

And as China, Russia and... Continue Reading

Gold Price Breakout in Multiple Currencies

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• Ronan Manly
• 4 Comments

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The gold price is now making new multi-year and all time highs in many of the world’s most important and most liquid fiat currencies, including the commodity currencies of the Canadian dollar and Australian dollar, and other major currencies such as the Swedish Krona, Singapore dollar, British pound and Euro.

A new multi-year high in US dollar gold is also a possibility right... Continue Reading

Gold & Silver Bullion – Different Investment Approaches

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• Gold & Silver 101
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There are a number of different ways of investing in precious metals, ranging from physical ownership of gold and silver bullion, to taking positions in derivative products which provide exposure to movements in gold prices or silver prices. When looking at ways to invest in gold and silver, it’s important to think about which routes … Continue Reading

Investing in Gold and Silver: An Introduction

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• Gold & Silver 101
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Gold and silver bullion are the world’s best-known and most widely held precious metals, and both metals have played key roles throughout recorded history as forms of money, as forms of saving, and as means of wealth protection. Today, physical gold and physical silver in the form of investment bars and investment coins are highly … Continue Reading

Should I Invest in Gold, Silver or Platinum Bullion?

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• Gold & Silver 101
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A common question for investors new to precious metals is whether to purchase gold bullion, silver bullion, platinum bullion, or some combination of all three. All three metals are investment precious metals, all three metals are chemical elements, and all three metals are available to purchase in the form of high purity investment grade bars … Continue Reading

Should I Invest in Precious Metals Bars or Coins

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• Gold & Silver 101
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Given that the world’s leading precious metals Refineries and Mints fabricate a wide variety of bullion bars and coins in gold, silver and platinum, a natural question for buyers of investment precious metals is whether to purchase precious metals bars, precious metals coins, or both. While the final decision between buying precious metals bars or … Continue Reading

Investment Precious Metals – Exempt from GST

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• Gold & Silver 101
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In Singapore, a large range of investment precious metals bars and coins are exempt from the Singaporean Government’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). GST is Singapore’s equivalent to Value Added Tax (VAT) or Sales Tax. The GST exemption on qualifying investment precious metals in Singapore applies to both supply and importation of precious metals. The … Continue Reading

Storing Precious Metals & Bullion

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• Gold & Silver 101
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One of the most important decisions when saving and investing in precious metals is where to store your gold, silver and platinum bars and coins. Paramount to this choice of storage location is safety and security. Given the high value content of physical precious metals, many people choose to store their precious metals bars and … Continue Reading

Bullion Investing – Frequently Asked Questions

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• Gold & Silver 101
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What is a Gold/Silver/Platinum Spot Price? The spot price for a precious metal is the current market price for that precious metal which is traded in the wholesale market for immediate delivery. The spot price is usually quoted in US dollars per troy ounce and refers to a quotation for a standard but large quantity. … Continue Reading

BullionStar Cash & Bullion Account – Better than a Singapore Bank Account!

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• BullionStar
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As one of the innovative features BullionStar offers in bringing modern technology to the age old bullion sector, with a BullionStar account you can hold both bullion and cash on one and the same account.

Keeping funds on your BullionStar account allows you to save on costly bank fees, speed up your precious metals transactions, trade or average in and out of positions, and... Continue Reading

The Puzzle of Electrum Coins

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• JP Koning
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The earliest coins in antiquity are thought to be those that originated in the Lydia empire in around 640 BC. Made from a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold called electrum, these electrum coins had standard weights in a variety of denominations.

But the variable gold & silver mix found in electrum would have created difficulties in valuing these coins, which is why... Continue Reading

Still Firing on all Cylinders: China’s Physical Gold Market

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• Ronan Manly
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In the midst of non-stop headlines about the US Chinese trade war and its associated tariffs, one sector of the Chinese economy which is business as usual is the Chinese gold market.

From metrics of SGE gold withdrawals to central bank gold purchases, from Chinese gold imports to Chinese gold mining, the world’s biggest gold market continues to siphon off huge quantities of... Continue Reading

Pay-to-Play: LBMA shows contempt for the wider Gold and Silver markets

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• Ronan Manly
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In a move that is anything but ‘leveling the playing field’ in the London bullion market, the LBMA has now moved to charging US$ 1500 per month for even a glimpse into the shadowy trading data of the opaque bullion banks in London.

Going completely against the spirit of the UK Fair and Efficient Markets Review, while maintaining the fiction of increased transparency, the... Continue Reading

London’s annual Platinum Week: A showcase for the White Precious Metal

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• BullionStar
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Each year during May, the great and the good of the global platinum market come together in London for a series of seminars and events known as “Platinum Week” organized by the London Platinum and Palladium Market (LPPM).

Participants comprise the heads of platinum mining companies, refineries and mints as well as attendees from the auto industry, industrial companies,... Continue Reading

The only gold the US shows – A working vault at West Point

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• Ronan Manly
• 7 Comments

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On its sporadic visits to the US Mint’s bullion depository at West Point, New York, the attending media only ever sees a ‘working vault’ of about 3000 gold bars used as input into the Mint’s bullion coin minting programs.

This is despite the West Point Mint claiming to store 54 million ounces (135,000 gold bars) across 11 ‘deep storage’... Continue Reading

Why central banks should hold gold (and many other assets too)

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• JP Koning
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Canada’s central bank only holds one type of asset in its investment portfolio - Canadian government bonds.

As well as creating credit risk, this investment strategy risks the ability of the Bank to manage the accuracy of the Canadian dollar. This lack of diversification is a classic case of home bias. And its not just limited to the Bank of Canada.

To dilute this... Continue Reading

Curse of the London Gold Fix strikes again as SocGen abandons ship

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• Ronan Manly
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With news that the French Bank, SocGen, has exited from market making in the London gold and silver markets, does this signal something amiss and the beginnings of a new wave of defections, as further bullion banks run for the exits?

This latest departure by SocGen now means that four of the five members of the former infamous Gold Fixing auctions in London have now run into... Continue Reading

The vast gold hoards held by Germany’s population

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• Ronan Manly
• 9 Comments

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A new survey in Germany finds that the German public holds over 8900 tonnes of gold, with a majority of this gold held in the form of investment gold bars and gold coins.

This is quite a staggering number and is more than 2.6 times the amount of gold held by Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank.

German citizens hold gold as a form of wealth preservation and as a... Continue Reading

When Politicians and Central Banks clash – the Gold of Romania and Italy

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• Ronan Manly
• 1 Comments

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As China and Russia continue to make headlines with their ongoing and long-term accumulation of strategic gold reserves, in Europe central banks and their governments are increasingly coming into conflict on the issues of gold ownership and control of national gold reserves.

Two prime examples in this space right now are the gold repatriation legislation making its way... Continue Reading

Where did all the silver coins go?

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• JP Koning
• 10 Comments

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In the 1800s, the coins used in the UK and US contained mostly silver. But when the value of silver in coins exceeded the value of the coin itself, people would melt coins down. This lead to crippling coin shortages. The solution to coin shortages was to remove the silver content of coins, which is why to this day not a trace of silver is to be found in circulation coinage. Continue Reading

Holding Precious Metals in your Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

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• BullionStar
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In the US, an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a tax-incentivized account structure designed to save for retirement. IRAs can be opened by any US resident with taxable income. A self-directed IRA is a version of the IRA structure that allows investment into a wide selection of assets.

Under IRS rules, a wide range of investment grade precious metals can be held within... Continue Reading

Europe’s INSTEX payments channel won’t help Iran

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• JP Koning
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After months of anticipation, Europe has finally introduced INSTEX, a payments channel to help support Iranian trade in the face of U.S. sanctions. But INSTEX won't have much of an effect.

For the time being, it won't facilitate the all-important Iranian crude oil trade. But even if it does, U.S. sanctions are too powerful for INSTEX to attract many users. Continue Reading

BullionStar Financials FY 2018 – Year in Review

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• BullionStar
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As one of the world’s most innovative bullion dealers, BullionStar is also committed to transparency which extends to BullionStar’s annual financial results, which we publish on our website every year in the form of a commentary with supporting graphics.

For the financial year to 30 June 2018 (FY2018), BullionStar grew total revenues to SGD 177.8 million. Sales of gold bars... Continue Reading

The Domino Effect – Romania joins Gold Repatriation exodus

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• Ronan Manly
• 20 Comments

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With over 60 tonnes of gold stored at the Bank of England in London, moves are now afoot in the Romanian Parliament to force Romania’s central bank to repatriate most of this gold back from London to Bucharest.

If this move is successful, Romania will join the growing list of European nations, such as neighbouring Hungary and Austria, that choose to store their gold, not at... Continue Reading

RBA bosses squirm as Aussie politicians throw easy questions about RBA gold in London

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• Ronan Manly
• 7 Comments

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Following recent BullionStar coverage of the gold reserves of the Australian central bank claimed to be stored at the Bank of England, Australia’s gold continues to hit the headlines as a group of Aussie politicians host a public hearing quizzing the central bank heads about this very gold.

Unfortunately for the Australian population, due to what looks like a whitewash with a... Continue Reading

Australia’s gold at the Bank of England – Extended Q & A

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• Ronan Manly
• 4 Comments

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Recently, news network RT.com asked for BullionStar's comments on the question of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) gold reserves supposedly stored at the Bank of England's gold vaults in London.

Using some of these comments, RT has now published an article on the topic on its English language news website.

Since the full set of RT questions and BullionStar's... Continue Reading

Italy’s Gold enters the Political Fray. But who really owns it?

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• Ronan Manly
• 5 Comments

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Italy claims to be the third largest sovereign gold holder in the world, with more than 2450 tonnes of monetary gold holdings.

As populist political parties in Italy come to the fore, the question of whether to harness some of Italy's gold through gold sales has recently been raised.

But who actually owns the Italian gold? Italy's central bank, the Bank of Italy, says... Continue Reading

The Great Japanese Gold Trade of 1859

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• JP Koning
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When Japan opened for trade in 1858, Western merchants were thrilled to learn that the Japanese valued gold at a third its international price. This would create an arbitrage for enterprising merchants.

While the arbitrage didn't last long, here's how it occurred in a historical context, and here's how the traders tripled their money. Continue Reading

Bank of England tears up its Gold Custody contract with Venezuela’s central bank

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• Ronan Manly
• 51 Comments

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It is now an established fact that the Bank of England has been stalling for months in its refusal to allow stored gold to be withdrawn from London by the central bank of Venezuela.

Taking its orders from the UK and US governments, the reputation of the Bank of England as a safe and secure location for the gold bars of the world’s central banks looks now to have been... Continue Reading

How California stayed with gold when the rest of the U.S. adopted fiat money

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• JP Koning
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When the Union switched over to an inconvertible paper money standard during the American Civil War, California managed to stick to its gold standard. This episode give some insights into why contemporary monetary switches, including a potential displacement of the dollar by bitcoin, are so difficult to achieve. Continue Reading

Separating truth from fiction in China’s golden game of Poker

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• Ronan Manly
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After a two year silence, the Chinese central bank has come back to the table with an announcement that it purchased 10 tonnes of gold in December 2018. The last time it claims to have bought gold was in October 2016.

To an already skeptical audience, it is difficult to believe that the Chinese were not buying gold all through 2017 and 2018. Especially since their powerful... Continue Reading

Russian Central Bank buying Gold on the International market?

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• Ronan Manly
• 11 Comments

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The Russian central bank has bought so much gold this year that its purchases now exceed the amount of gold mined in Russia during 2018.

But with a policy of buying domestic gold mining output, the central bank will now need to look further afield to fulfill its gold reserve purchase requirements.

As existing agents of the central bank, the large Russian commercial... Continue Reading

Venezuela’s gold in limbo amid tug-of-war at the Bank of England

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• Ronan Manly
• 19 Comments

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As one of the world’s largest custodians of central bank gold, the Bank of England is attracting unwanted attention in a bizarre saga involving 14 tonnes of Venezuela’s gold.

A whole cast of colorful characters has recently emerged on both sides, those wanting the gold to be returned and those wanting the gold to be confiscated. Continue Reading

An early attempt at standardizing money using international gold coins

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• JP Koning
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Last month the world settled on a new definition of the kilogram. Our success at harmonizing weights stands in contrast with our failure to establish a universal unit for measuring monetary value. This post explores the difficulty of this project by investigating a late-1860s effort to establish an international system for comparing value. Continue Reading

French central bank and JP Morgan team up to boost Gold Lending

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• Ronan Manly
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The gold lending market is arguably the most secretive and opaque market in the world with little known about its workings and less about its transactions and outstanding gold lending positions.

While London is the core hub for this secretive market, one of the giants of bullion banking, JP Morgan, has recently confirmed that it is facilitating central bank gold lending in... Continue Reading

Gold Market Charts: November 2018

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• Gold Market Charts
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BullionStar’s Gold Market Charts articles examine recent developments in the world’s largest physical gold markets using illustrative gold market charts created by the GoldChartsRUs.com gold market chart website.

Physical gold markets covered in this latest update include China, Russia, Switzerland, and the gold holdings of the Bank of England and LBMA gold vaults in... Continue Reading

Why the US Mint once issued gold discs to Saudi Arabia

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• JP Koning
• 12 Comments

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Shortly after World War II, the U.S. produced almost 200,000 gold discs for Saudi Arabia. Coin collectors usually link the discs to ARAMCO, the Saudi-American company responsible for producing much of Saudi Arabia's oil. This post revisits the monetary arrangements of the era to determine why the discs were actually issued. Continue Reading

LBMA trading volume data confirms the paper gold casino in London

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• Ronan Manly
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Following on nearly four years after the UK financial authorities released a report titled the Fair and Efficient Markets Review, the London Bullion Market Association has finally released a new report showing trading volumes in the London gold and silver markets.

While the new data confirms the long standing view that gold trading in London is predominantly synthetic paper... Continue Reading

Bank of England refuses to return 14 tonnes of gold to Venezuela

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• Ronan Manly
• 32 Comments

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A number of news stories have circulated recently that Venezuela is having difficulty withdrawing 14 tonnes of its gold from the Bank of England vaults in London.

While official sources quoted in these articles offer explanations for the delay which are clearly bogus, and the real reason is one of politics, Venezuela's inability to withdraw its gold from the Bank of England... Continue Reading

Does the recent spate of Central Bank gold buying impact demand and price?

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• Ronan Manly
• 2 Comments

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Central bank gold demand has hit the headlines recently due to additional central banks announcing gold purchases as well as an overall increase in the amount of gold which these banks as a group claim to be buying.

But it is dangerous for the media and the World Gold Council to group all central bank gold purchases into the same basket, since the motivations of individual... Continue Reading